Church pushes selfless Sunday | POLL

Members focus on good deeds

Julia Rendleman / Courier &amp; Press
Rebekah Seagert, 7, weeds the flower beds Sunday afternoon at New Tech Institute on Lynch Road in Evansville. Rebekah was a part of Christian Fellowship Church's day of community service.

Rather than sitting at home and watching baseball on TV, Jamie Newcomb planned to drive to Fort Branch, Ind., on Sunday to deliver some much needed help to a family friend.

Newcomb said a man he knows there is out of a job, has two children and is struggling to pay medical bills. Newcomb said he wants to ease the friend's burdens by offering him money and food.

"It's what Christ called on us to do," Newcomb said. "We are so blessed in America and in our family. Everything has been given to us."

Newcomb's trip was one of many good deeds members planned to undertake in celebration of the 36th anniversary of Christian Fellowship Church, 4100 Millersburg Road in northern Vanderburgh County.

For the event, named "The Church Has Left the Building," the Rev. David Niednagel called on his congregation to serve society in a selfless manner.

Niednagel said the good deeds could take any form: giving money to a needy person in the grocery store, cutting someone's grass or visiting a patient in a nursing home. He said the point was to undertake work that benefited society directly and the doer indirectly.

"That is as basic as anything that is in the Bible," he said after Sunday's worship service. "Human nature doesn't want to go out and serve someone else. This is a stimulation."

Niednagel's exhortations weren't lost on his audience.

John Carter, a 26-year-old Evansville resident, said he hadn't made up his mind what his good deed he would be. But he was leaning toward cleaning up a park.

"It's a beautiful day, and we could worship the Lord in the park," he said. "You can see his beauty, and other people will see you cleaning and probably take notice."

Another worshipper, Tom Wilkison, said he planned to drive to Augusta, Ind., to help at his family's farm.

"It will be a work day," he said. "We're probably going to do some grass mowing and weed eating and have a little cookout, I hope."

Jim and Barbara Culp of Evansville said they would spend the day in the same manner as last year, delivering school and laundry supplies to a local homeless shelter. Barbara Culp said they planned to take paper towels, laundry detergent, toilet paper and other items needed in the charity's everyday tasks.

"We are the hands and feet of Jesus," she said. "We are just spreading the work of Jesus."

Niednagel told the congregation they shouldn't think of themselves of representatives of Christian Fellowship Church, noting that the T-shirts made for Sunday's event didn't mention the church's name. If someone asked who they were, they should reply they were out doing the work of the Lord, he said.